


Blue Messages

by aexis1465



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Eventual Relationships, Female Pronouns for Pidge | Katie Holt, M/M, Mutual Pining, Panic Attacks, Pining Lance (Voltron), Rating May Change, in chapter 3, in chapter 4, is it still pining of they know about each other's feelings?, mentions of torture, no? okay
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-06-12
Updated: 2018-05-27
Packaged: 2018-11-13 03:25:55
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 15,846
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11176008
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aexis1465/pseuds/aexis1465
Summary: When Keith was 14 years old, Shiro told him he was always missing opportunities. It wasn’t his fault, he’d said, he was just too anxious to take chances as they came. Keith was more of a follower, he didn’t see himself fit to lead people. He messes up often, acts on emotions, and found it hard to empathize with just about anyone.As he sits in Blue, watching the different videos and listening to the audio logs, he realizes he missed out on what could have been the best thing in his life. He missed out on Lance.





	1. Chapter 1

_10 days, 13 hours, 54 minutes, and 3 seconds._

The timer in the corner of Keith's helmet continues to count the seconds since Lance was taken prisoner on the last mission. It was one of the simpler missions they've gone on as a team, yet it held the worst outcome. Keith supposes he should be the slightest bit happy, the prisoners were rescued and now back on their home planet. But instead he is left feeling as empty as Lance's bedroom. 

He misses the sound of Lance dropping his skin-care products and cursing as one of the bottle lands on his foot. Every night Keith listened through the wall connecting their bedrooms as Lance busied himself to stay awake. Why he was trying to stay awake was still a mystery for Keith. He assumes it is due to nightmares, but he can't be sure. 

Most nights carried on with the occasional bump or sneeze. But the nights without noise were the worst for Lance and, in turn, Keith. All he could do was listen as Lance cried about missing his family or how he wasn't up to par with the other paladins or how he didn't want to be in space because no one else wanted him there. Many times Keith longed to be in the bedroom with Lance to comfort him as he cries. One time he went as far as standing in front of the door, but the courage to knock would never come before he returned to his own bedroom. 

Now he knew what it was like to be in Lance’s position. He spent as much as the day he could in his room, just staring at the wall, thinking about what he could have done to save Lance. He criticized himself for not being good enough to rescue the prisoners and keep Lance out of danger. 

The other paladins tried to get his mind away from Lance many times, but they’ve since given up. Pidge managed to download movies from Earth into a hard drive, Hunk found out Keith liked dark chocolate and started making anything that would resemble the desert, and Shiro offered to help Keith with anything he could ever need help with. As much as the gestures were appreciated, Keith didn’t want help, especially when everything just reminded him of Lance. In most of the movies Pidge found, Keith recognized jokes that Lance made in reference to the movie. Lance loved Hunk’s cooking more than anyone else on the ship. Lance was the team’s support system, he was there to cheer everyone up when mistakes were made and he was the first to encourage one of them to try again if they failed. Everything the team had to offer reminded Keith of Lance. 

There weren’t any fights with the Galra to distract him either. Since taking Lance, they’ve left Voltron alone. They’ve done one other rescue mission, but Keith was forced to sit out. Shiro said he wasn’t in a condition to pilot his lion due to the lack of sleep he’s been getting. While the others were out on the mission, Keith stayed in the training room. He set the bots to two levels ahead of where he normally was and fought the bots until his hand were bruised and bloody. It was Allura who found him. He was sitting in the corner of the room crying while the bots circled him. She ended the training sequence and Keith was sent to a healing pod for a minimum of four hours. 

When he fell out of the pod, Pidge was standing in front of him expectantly. She grilled him for working himself to the point of a breakdown, and then forced him to promise not to do it again. Now he waits for the moments when Pidge finally collapses from lack of sleep to train. If he trained more, the easier it would be to rescue Lance and ensure he was never captured again. 

Just as Keith was going to drag himself out of bed to train, a small knock sounded at his door. Before he was able to say anything, the door was already open and Shiro was standing behind it in his paladin armor. His helmet was rested under his arm and his face was tinted red the way it does after working hard on a mission. 

“We rescued the blue lion, but she won’t let anyone inside. Allura thought maybe you would be able to get Blue to open up,” Shiro said. 

“I don’t-” 

“No one is forcing you, but think about it.”His determination to train left him as Shiro walked down the hallway. 

_They rescued Blue._ The thought kept running through his head. They went on a mission to rescue the lion without him. The realization that the team didn’t think Keith was stable enough to join them on missions hit him soon after. They didn’t think Keith could handle a rescue mission. He wants to be angry. Keith wants to yell at the team for doubting him. He wants to throw every dish in the kitchen while screaming. Anything he can do to express how angry he wants to be.

But he isn’t angry. If he was the same person he was when he was kicked out of the Garrison perhaps he would have done all those things. However, he can’t help but feel himself agree with the team. The truth is: he isn’t stable enough for a rescue mission. He has isolated himself in his room, only leave to train when he felt up to it. Hunk was bringing him food everyday and Coran would show up to ask if his mood was improving. Occasionally, Allura or Shiro would show up with news and Pidge would tell him to stop moping. 

He doesn’t want to be moping, though. It makes him feel useless- as if there is nothing he can contribute that will help in anyway. Despite piloting the fastest lion and having above average fighting skills, he wasn’t able to help the rest of the team. 

He laughs bitterly. Shiro wants Keith to take over as the head of Voltron if something happens, yet this situation is proof that if something happens, Keith wouldn’t be able to function as a leader let alone a standard paladin.The team was making greater strides without him. If he was a leader, Lance would still be captured and the blue lion would be there with him. 

The blue lion. Shiro said she wasn’t opening to anyone. If Keith could get any information from Blue, he’d be able to contribute to the team for the first time since Lance’s capture. Maybe he could find Lance tell him everything he regrets not saying before the mission. His chance to fix everything is across the castle. 

Keith stands from his bed, feeling more lively than he has in 10 days, 14 hours, 31 minutes, and 57 seconds.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith takes Shiro's advice of trying to get information from the blue lion and he finds more than he was expecting. 
> 
>  
> 
> _He notices a presence in the back of his mind. It’s not as announced as the red lion’s, but it definitely a similar sensation. Instead of the fiery determination he feels with Red, it’s a cool and calming sensation. It reminds him of the time he visited the ocean before leaving for the Garrison with Shiro._

Walking through the castle at night was the first time Keith has felt an element of normality. The hum of the castle and the dimmed lights to simulate night felt calming. If he were to close his eyes, it’d be easier to forget he was on his way to retrieve information from the blue lion. To forget why he was trying to get the information. 

Fortunately, when he arrived to the hangar, it was empty. Keith half expected to see Pidge adding more advancements to the green lion. Most of her late nights were spent with her lion to repair or improve something. Keith assumes it’s how the pair bonds. 

The red lion’s eyes light up slightly as Keith walks by to get to Blue. He looks at her with a small apology. He hasn’t paid any attention to his lion because of how caught up he was in his own mind about Lance. He makes a mental note to give Red the attention she deserves as soon as Keith feels up to it. It would be unfair to spend time with her if he wasn’t going to be completely there mentally. 

He notices a presence in the back of his mind. It’s not as announced as the red lion’s, but it definitely a similar sensation. Instead of the fiery determination he feels with Red, it’s a cool and calming sensation. It reminds him of the time he visited the ocean before leaving for the Garrison with Shiro. They were driving and passed a beach on their way. Keith was just about begging for Shiro to stop, even if it was only for a few minutes. And it was only a few minutes, but it was long enough for him to experience the warm sand and the cold ocean water. 

Why Lance speaks of missing the ocean so often becomes very clear as Keith finds the source of the feeling to be the blue lion. Her eyes light up the same way Red’s did as Keith stops in front of her. He stares up at the lion, thinking of whether or not he should announce himself. It was clear the lion already knew he was there, but he didn’t want to upset the only connection to Lance he has. 

Before he has a chance to say something, Blue opens her mouth to let Keith enter the cockpit. He takes small steps as he enters. As she closes her mouth, he becomes more comfortable walking around. The lion purrs around him as he sits down in the pilot seat. However he doesn’t touch any controls. Accepting the lion’s presence and sitting in the pilot seat felt too much like encroaching on Lance’s space. Touching the controls or possibly flying Blue would be too much for him. 

“You obviously know about Lance,” Keith said. “I just want to know more. I want to help him, considering it was my fault he was taken.” 

The first time he said it was his fault, the team refused, but he knows it was him. Lance was practically screaming in his ear about the plan, yet Keith ignored him. Instead of following the plan everyone agreed on before attacking, he tried to pull a stunt that would involve him being in the Galra ship’s trackers. The second before Keith was exposed to the ship, Lance used the lion to push Keith and Red out of the tracker, but revealed himself to the Galra by doing so. If Keith hadn’t gone against the plan, none of this would have happened. 

“If you have anything about Lance you would like me to see or that he may have had for the team to see, I would really appreciate it.” 

A transparent blue screen appeared before him. On it was the beginning to a video of Lance sitting in the same pilot chair Keith was in now. He gasped at the sight of Lance. His legs were dangling from the side of the chair and he was propping himself up on his elbow. The position didn’t look comfortable at all, but the wide smile spread across Lance’s face showed that he didn’t mind the pose. 

“The calendar Pidge made to resemble Earth days ran out of squares today.” Hearing Lance’s voice fill the silence felt melodic. Though his voice sounds like he just woke up, it was still Lance’s voice and that was enough for Keith. 

“I guess we’ve been up in space for about a year now. Which is- I don’t know what it is exactly, but it’s something. It’s not like I regret meeting everyone, obviously. They are like my second family- my space family, I guess you could call them. Like Hunk. I love the guy to death, he is like another brother to me, but in the space family we have, he is totally the mom. He reminds me of my actual mom, though. He is always worried about me and everyone else, for that matter. Overfeeds everyone and cares too much, that’s exactly like mom.” 

Despite Lance constantly talking about his family, Keith can’t recall knowing much about their personalities. He knows about the time Lance’s youngest sister fell out of a tree and Lance carried her to the hospital because his mom worked as a nurse and wasn’t home at the time. Or the time Lance’s oldest brother paid some girl to be his date for a family dinner so the family would stop asking when he was going to get a girlfriend. Keith supposes he’d be able to morph together a personality from the memories Lance share, but it wouldn’t be the same as the personalities Lance knows them for. 

“I told him that once actually,” Lance laughed softly as he recalled the memory. “He told me he couldn’t be the mom because that was Allura. Personally, I think Allura is more of a sister. I have four sisters and Allura is pretty similar to all of them. She reminds me Cam the most. The endless beauty, quick thinking, and just being really nice and accepting. Sure there was a small bump in the road when we found out Keith was part Galra, but in the end, she did accept him.”

There was a pause of silence in the video before Lance looks into the webcam. It looks more realistic to Keith. They way Lance seems to be staring directly at him instead of looking around the inside of the lion. Almost as if Lance knew Keith would watch this, like he was talking to Keith instead of the camera in Blue. 

“Between you and me, I don’t think Allura likes me too much. I think it was because of the flirting, but those were just jokes. I mean she is beautiful and anyone would be lucky to date her, but I’m not interested. I have my eyes on someone else. And because I’ve already had to have this conversation with Shiro: it is not Pidge. Pidge reminds me too much of my brother. He is three years younger than me. He and I are the only guys in the house, so we shared a room. Which was a pretty great deal because all the girls share a room. It was four of them until Cam moved out, but they still have three in one room while we only have two. Well, I guess it’s just Benji now. Damn, he’s getting away with his own room. Maybe mom made him a room in the attic to spread the girls out a bit more. Wait! I’m getting off topic. What was I talking about?” 

“Pidge,” Keith answered before realizing it was still just a video. Lance wasn’t actually in the lion with him, talking about his family and how the paladins were a second “space” family to him. 

“Oh my god, I can’t remember! Okay. I was talking about Hunk, then Allura, then Benji- oh! Pidge! Yeah, Pidge. She reminds me of Benji because they are both like super geniuses. Benji not so much as Pidge, but he has the same work ethic as her. I can’t count the number of times I’ve caught him on the top bunk bed, under a blanket working on his computer. I was constantly telling him to go to sleep, not that he ever listened. The only person in my family that listened to me was Taylor and I’m pretty sure it was because she was a still a baby when I left. Se wouldn't understand my other siblings telling her I wasn’t as cool as she thought I was.”

Lance laughs before continuing. “Not that I’ve ever said this to anyone, but Taylor is the reason I want kids. I’ve always loved babies and kids, they are just a lot of fun to be around. I was the father figure for most of my siblings, but eventually they got tired of me looking out for them. I’ll never forget when the twins came up to me on their eighth birthday and told me they didn’t want my help with anything anymore. Taylor was born shortly after and I took control with raising her. I feel bad for mom, I basically took her child. Anytime I wasn’t at school, I was with Taylor.”

It didn’t take a lot of thought to see Lance would be amazing with kids. There was once a group of children that Keith and Lance rescued from a planet. The older alien children spent most of their time roaming around the castle until they were at a safer planet, but the younger children were practically glued to Lance. The way Lance acted around the children is still one of the most amazing things Keith has witnessed while in space. 

“I should probably finish this speech off with Shiro. Though he is completely different from my actual father, he is the dad of the space family for pretty obvious reasons. Pretty much for the same reasons as Hunk: super caring, always looking out for us, and all that stuff. I think it would benefit him to unwind a bit. He is really into protocol and sticking to the plan. I think if he tried being more relaxed, he’d like it a lot. And as much as I hate to end this so abruptly, but I am being informed that my presence is needed in the dining room.” 

The video goes back to the original picture of Lance sitting in the pilot chair. It wasn’t the information Keith was hoping to find, but he can definitely say he feels a lot closer to Lance after watching the video. He didn’t learn much more about Lance, but hearing about what he thought of his family and the fellow paladins was an eye-opener. Sure he knew Lance was more than what he seemed, but Keith never knew much about Lance minus what he can see. 

“Thank you for showing me the video,” He said quietly to Blue who purred again in response. The lion slowly moved it’s head closer to the ground to let Keith leave the cockpit. 

“I’ll come back tomorrow,” He promises before stepping out of the hangar.

The castle is just as silent as it was when he left his room. He silently walked back to his bedroom thinking of the video. He’d have to tell the team about Blue opening for him and how he can feel a bond with Blue that’s similar to his bond with Red. Part of Keith doesn’t want to tell everyone else. He likes having the videos of Lance to himself. If the others knew, it’s possible they would also watch everything, taking away the only connection he currently has with Lance. But that would be a dilemma he can face tomorrow.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hmu on tumblr @aexis1465 (it isn't letting me put a link ?? I guess I'll fix it later lmao)


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The team tells Keith there is a possibility of Lance being dead, but he refuses to listen. And he finds an unexpected list written for him by Lance. 
> 
> _“I just walked into the hangar and she bonded with me.”_   
>  _“She bonded with you?” Allura asked._   
>  _“Yeah, why? Does that mean something I don’t know?”_   
>  _“Lions are only meant to bond with one paladin, Keith.”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Keith has a panic attack in this chapter, so please be careful if reading that stuff makes you uncomfortable!

Waking up to the castle’s alarm system, no matter how often it happens, is always terrifying. Going straight from sleep to attack mode is not comfortable by any means. Keith shakes his head as he rushes to put on his armor. On his way out the door, he barely remembers to grab his bayard. 

“What’s going on?” He said as he ran into the room everyone else was in. 

“Someone woke up Blue last night,” Allura doesn’t look up from the screen she is looking at. 

“Yeah, that was me.” 

Allura’s head whipped around so face Keith was almost concerned for her safety. “How’d you do that?” 

“Yeah, man, we tried for like two hours when we got back yesterday. She wanted nothing to do with us,” Hunk said. 

“I just walked into the hangar and she bonded with me.”

“She bonded with you?” 

“Yeah, why? Does that mean something I don’t know?” 

“Lions are only meant to bond with one paladin, Keith.” 

_They were insinuating Lance is dead._ Keith thought. Before he could yell at them for thinking such a thing, he found himself running to the hangar. 

Only once he was sitting in the blue lion did Keith notice how labored his breathing was. Thoughts of Lance dying in all the terrible ways the Galra are capable of committing run through his head at an alarming rate. He feels a heavy weight against his chest, making it even harder to breath. As the world around him blurred in and out of focus, Keith felt he was screaming. His throat felt raw and his eyes stung like he was crying, but he can’t feel any tears running down his face. 

“I was thinking about the video I made on family the other day. I didn’t include Keith and it’s eating me alive because I don’t know why I left him out,” Lance’s voice sounds soft as it echos through the lion. 

Keith suddenly feels the tears falling from his eyelashes when he hears Lance’s voice. Hearing Lance talk- and about him, nonetheless- helps calms his nerves. His mind slowly stops throwing the images of Lance’s death at him and his breathing evens out as he listens to Lance. 

“I don’t hate him! I really don’t! That rivalry was really stupid, I only started it because I was jealous. He is a part of the family I have here, but I can’t figure out where he fits in. I wouldn’t say he’s like a brother or cousin or anything because that’d be really weird. I would never tell my brother he is beautiful they way I’d tell Keith. I’m sure both would have the same reaction of punching me, but it’d be way less creepy to tell Keith he’s beautiful than my brother.” 

Beautiful. That’s the word Keith would use to describe Lance in any situation. He is beautiful in the morning when he is wearing a chipped face mask and his eye-mask is sitting on top of his unruly bedhead. He is beautiful when he is dripping in sweat from working so hard in practice so someone will notice how much he’s improved. There were endless scenarios when Lance would enter a room and Keith’s mind would supply “beautiful” to describe the sight, yet he never imagined Lance calling him beautiful. 

“I’ve told Hunk this before and he told me it sounded like I liked Keith. Like more than a friend liked Keith. I didn’t want to agree with Hunk. I couldn’t like Keith, I just couldn’t! I started making a list of the pros and cons of Mr. Keith Kogane, but soon after I started, the cons side morphed into the positive side. I basically ended with a list of reason of why dating Keith would be the best,” Lance laughed. “I don’t think I ever got rid of it either; shame on me for that one. With my luck, Pidge found it and is waiting to use it against me one of these days.” 

Keith only ever had luck when he didn’t want it. He was lucky to have the blade from his father, but he was unlucky to find it meant he was part Galra. He was lucky to have six people that cared about him, but he was unlucky that any of them could die any given day. However, he was hoping he could find the list without rummaging through Lance’s room. He was already invading Lance’s privacy by watching these videos, he didn’t want to make matters worse by searching his room too. 

The video stops without warning and Keith lifts his head from his hands. Everything seemed more calm and relaxed than when he first entered the lion. He stands from the spot on the floor. His legs shake for a few seconds before he regains his balance. Blue gently moves to let him out of the cockpit and back into the hangar. 

“Thank you,” Keith said on his way out. 

The entire team is waiting in front of the blue lion. Keith thinks back to when he was in the midst of his panic attack. Did they hear him? Would they think he is too unstable to be apart of the team? Everyone on the team has had their fair share of freakouts, but Keith’s always seem to be less frequent and more severe. This is possibly one of the only attacks he’s had in space where he’s calmed down in less than fifteen minutes. 

“What do you do with Blue? Does she tell you anything?” Shiro asks. 

Did he want to tell the team about the videos of Lance? From the ones Keith has seen, they don’t hold any information that would help them save Lance. He quickly made his decision not to tell the team. If he did find something that would help them, he’d tell them. Otherwise, he wanted the videos of Lance to himself no matter how selfish he felt because of it. 

“I just sit with her. She doesn’t tell me anything.” It wasn’t a total lie. Blue wasn’t the one talking to him, it was Lance, she just happened to be relaying the message.

“He has to be lying! No offence, Keith,” Hunk said. “Why would the lion bond with him if she wasn’t giving him information.” 

“You all agreed with Shiro: there can only be one paladin for a lion. Maybe Blue decided I would be her next paladin.”

It hurt Keith to say they could be correct in Lance dying, but he needed them to stop interrogating him about the lion. If Keith was the new blue paladin, Red’s presence wouldn’t be in his mind. Both of lions held an equal portion of his attention. He has yet to test it, but he theorizes that he’d be able to pilot either lion if he wanted. 

“You don’t actually think Lance is dead,” Pidge said. 

“No, but you all seem to think so.” 

“Keith-”

“I’m going to go change out of my armor. I shouldn’t be wearing it for no reason.” He pushed past everyone to leave the hangar. 

When he gets to his room, he strips out of the armor and tosses it to the corner of the room. Normally he would take the time to set it somewhere- normally in the closet- neatly. He put on his normal attire before walking out of his room and into Lance’s. 

The room was as messy, but not in the way Lance expected. He figured there would just be stuff everywhere and walking around would be an impossible mission. Instead, it was more of an organized mess. All of the clothes Lance has gathered from different planets were folded and stacked in front of the closet, blankets were scattered all over the bed without any touching the floor, his bathroom held all of the beauty supplies arranged on the counter, and the desk held a mess of papers. Everything seemed to have a place except for Lance’s jacket that was crumpled on the floor beside the other clothes he must have been wearing before changing into his paladin armor for the mission. 

Keith picks the jacket and discards his own in favor of wearing Lance’s. It smelled the same as everyone else’s clothes. The laundry soap Hunk and Pidge had created to mimic what the would normally use on Earth had a strong scent, it covered just about anything. He stuck his hands in the pockets and pulled the jacket tighter around him. It was much warmer than his own jacket; Keith never felt like taking it off. 

He stared at the desk that had a mound of different papers sitting on it. As far as Keith knows, everything on the castle is electronic. Much like the laundry soap, Hunk and Pidge must be responsible for the mass amount of paper and whatever pens Lance was using to write everything. 

The first paper that stood out to Keith was a rough sketch of the mice. The more Keith looked around the desk he noticed most of the papers were drawings. There were a couple more of the mice, some of team together, and some of just the individual members. Each was done with such detail that it’s hard for Keith to believe they were done from Lance’s knowledge of what everyone looked like. It’s possible for him to have reference photos of everyone, but Keith can’t remember ever letting Lance take pictures of him. 

Regardless of the sketches, Keith was looking for the list Lance made. He sat down on the chair in front of the desk and started sorting the papers. When Lance returned it would be very obvious someone went through the papers, but that was something he could worry about later. 

It took five minute of sorting through all the papers on the desk, but Keith eventually found the list. The paper was folded in half to divide it into two side: the left being titled _Reasons to like Keith_ and the right titled _Reasons not to date Keith_. 

_Reasons to like Keith:_  
_1\. He makes dumb jokes sometimes_  
_2\. His eyes are a really pretty purple_  
_3\. He seems like the kind of person to secretly want kids someday_  
_4\. He is the best pilot I’ve ever met_  
_5\. He knows more about knives and swords than anyone I know_  
_6\. He is smart even if he makes dumb decisions sometimes_

Keith read the list three times over, not believing Lance could write about him like this. The videos revealed a side of Lance that was unlike who he saw around the castle, but that’s the only time Keith has seen Lance not trying to pick a fight with him. Even the day he was captured the argued, ultimately causing him to be captured. Up until seeing the videos, their relationship seemed to be based on insults and arguments. Keith knew they were meaningless coming from him, but he always thought Lance truly disliked him. 

He shook his head before reading the other side of the paper. 

_Reasons not to date Keith_  
_1\. He makes really dumb decisions_  
_2\. Even though it’s growing out and isn’t as bad, he still had a mullet and it looked horrid_  
_3\. He is really stubborn so nothing ever gets resolved but that would also mean he’s too stubborn to break up with me_  
_4\. His jacket doesn’t make sense to me, but it looks good on him_  
_5\. There aren’t enough negatives about him to even out the list_

“The video wasn’t kidding when he said the negatives morphed into positives,” Keith mumbled. 

Keith couldn’t lie about enjoying the happiness Lance brought everywhere he went. Everyone knew Lance was more of an optimistic person. There were times he had his downfalls of negativity, but for the most part, Lance felt like the pedestal holding the team up. Making a list of negative attributes about anything didn’t sound like something he was capable of doing, and judging by the list Keith just read, that is an accurate judgement. 

Keith groaned, “We need to find him.” 


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance has a realization he'd rather not have and Keith finds proof of Lance still being alive. 
> 
>  
> 
> _Blue’s presence felt as if it was screaming. He was feeling too many emotions coming from the lion at once, his mind was having trouble keeping up. His skin felt like it was on fire and he felt paralyzed. He tried standing from his bed, nearly collapsing as he touched the floor._
> 
>  
> 
> _Keith stumbled out of his room, walking with his left hand on the wall to steady himself. Speeding up seemed impossible, but the closer he got to Blue, the feeling of fire left his limbs. By the time he passed the dining hall, he was sprinting to get to the hangar. With his mind preoccupied, he failed to notice the team abandon their meal to follow him. Keith didn’t stop running until he was in the cockpit of the blue lion to see what she desperately wanted him to see._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There are brief mentions of torture in the beginning, so if you want to skip it, skip paragraph 4

The floor was cold and footsteps were approaching him. He tried to pull himself into a sitting position to appear as strong as possible, but his arm give out after he tries putting any weight on them. The footsteps get louder and louder until they stop in front of him, which he had come to expect. If Lance wasn’t the only prisoner on this ship, he was definitely the most important. However, he didn’t expect the guards to drop his paladin armor in front of him. Once he was locked in a cell, two guards stripped him of his armor to replace it with the uniform Lance had seen on all the prisoners he had saved before being captured. 

“Ungrateful brat,” The guard spit before leaving. 

Lance didn’t dare to grab the armor until he could no longer hear the guard’s footsteps. He stretches his arm out to grab the helmet. The rest of the suit could be inspected later, but the helmet was the number one way to attempt contact with the castle. And if he could contact the castle, he’d definitely have some sort of contact with blue. Whether that contact be an actual audio message or just a projection of his thoughts, he didn’t know, but it would be something. 

His body felt like it was on fire as he forced himself to sit up. Since his time in the Galra prison, two druids have spent the majority of their time working with Lance. Originally, they told him they wanted to know more about humans since they’ve only encountered the members of the Kerberos mission. What started with harmless questions Lance would refuse to answer soon turned into physical and emotional torture. He felt the worst pain he’s ever endured as the druids would cut into his skin after he refused to answer another question about Earth or Voltron. Once his body was on the brink of death, the druids would heal of his wounds instantly, leaving the pain and the scars behind. 

The helmet covering his head felt familiar and Lance didn’t bother thinking about what traps could be happening around him as he looked through the different panels on his visor. One was his vitals and would hold the other paladin’s vitals if they were wearing their uniform, another would be a map of his current location if he was in his lion, and the third was anything he would need to know about the blue lion. The small screen held a list of complete and incomplete updates and Blue’s health status for when they were in battle. He couldn’t see anything out of the ordinary except that Blue was lacking many updates, presumably because he wasn’t there to work on them. 

Slowly, Lance moved to the rest of his armor. He took off the prisoner uniform in trade for the undersuit that clung just as tight to his skin as the prisoner uniform. He took his time to put on the metal pieces. They felt heavier than he remembered, but that could be due to the lack of food he has eaten. The Galra have given him two meals a day, but Lance refuses to eat them. There was no telling what was in the food, so he didn’t want to eat it unless he thought it was necessary. 

Although the armor felt heavier, Lance felt comfortable wearing it. Wearing armor generally wasn’t considered a great feeling considering when wearing it, he was normally killing enemies. The last time he wore the armor, he had been captured by Galra, yet wearing the armor now was a relief. Instead of feeling weak and vulnerable, Lance felt more confident. As if he could fight anything thrown his way even though he was in no condition to do so. 

The idea of actually having to fight something crossed Lance’s mind. His armor wouldn’t have been given back to him without some ulterior motive. Lance thought of the many different scenarios of why his armor was returned to him. The one that made the most sense to him happened to also the be the one he was most terrified of: the gladiator ring.

* * *

His room was silent as he sat on his bed waiting for dinner time was over. The idea of sitting at the table with everyone else after the day’s conversation was too uncomfortable for Keith. He didn’t plan on eating until he knew everyone was out of the dining hall. 

Lance’s list was left on his desk. Keith couldn’t think of an appropriate way to deal with the note, so he left it where he found it so he knew where it was incase he thought of something. But for the time being, there wasn’t much he could do with the single paper that had Lance’s feelings towards Keith written out. 

Blue’s presence felt as if it was screaming. He was feeling too many emotions coming from the lion at once, his mind was having trouble keeping up. His skin felt like it was on fire and he felt paralyzed. He tried standing from his bed, nearly collapsing as he touched the floor. 

Keith stumbled out of his room, walking with his left hand on the wall to steady himself. Speeding up seemed impossible, but the closer he got to Blue, the feeling of fire left his limbs. By the time he passed the dining hall, he was sprinting to get to the hangar. With his mind preoccupied, he failed to notice the team abandon their meal to follow him. Keith didn’t stop running until he was in the cockpit of the blue lion to see what she desperately wanted him to see. 

Lance’s vitals on the screen in front of him. His heart rate and his breathing were speeding up. Lance was alive and something is happening to make him panic. Keith couldn’t take not know what was happening to Lance. Any scenario his brain supplied him with was too frightening. He laughed bitterly. He was upset about seeing proof of Lance being alive. 

“I need to tell the others, they might be able to find him,” He said softly to Blue before leaving. 

“Keith! What is going on?” Allura said as soon as he reached the floor of the hangar. “Why were you running through the dining hall?” 

“Lance is alive. He has his armor on and he is alive!” 

“Pidge, do you think you could find where he is based on his armor?” Shiro asked. 

“Possibly, but I don’t know how long it would take to find him. Keith, can you have Blue send whatever information she is getting from Lance to my lion?” 

“Of course.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Short chapter with bad ending, not my best work but also no my worst lmao 
> 
> Also what did you think about seeing more into Lance's perspective? I'm thinking of doing another small section of his, so if you're interested in seeing more of Lance, please don't be afraid to say something 
> 
> And finally, as always my tumblr is [@aexis1465](http://aexis1465.tumblr.com/) and I take requests whenever so if you have any ideas feel free to talk to me about them! Thanks for reading! <33


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this is a few days late, I haven't been all that motivated to write. But alas, I got the chapter out and I plan on writing a few more by the next update so I don't run behind when band starts lmao

As it would turn out, finding Lance’s coordinates could take up to a week. After the information was sent to the green lion, Pidge spent all night looking at the information. When she came to breakfast the next day, she told everyone how it wouldn’t be as easy as she initially thought and it would take longer to look through all the information.

It was only another week. Lance could hold on for another week, Keith was sure of it. If anything was going to stop him, it would have already happened. Lance was stronger than he let on and giving up wasn’t something he did often. The only thing that could break Lance were his friends and his family. Fortunately, the Galra only have information on the other paladins and Lance knew they could protect themselves. 

“It was nice eating breakfast with you guy, but I’m going to go to the hangar,” Keith excuses himself from the table. 

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah, it’s fine.” Keith stood up and left the dining hall in favor of sitting with Blue. 

As always, the lion allowed Keith to enter the cockpit without any issues. The screen popped up with Lance’s information still on it, but it was soon moved in favor of another video. 

“Can we go somewhere other than the hangar?” He said. “Not that I have a problem here, but there is a moon not too far away and I’d like to get away from the castle for a bit.” 

Getting away from the castle wasn’t something the paladins did often. Their jobs were to protect whomever needed protection. It would be near impossible to answer the stream of distress calls if all five paladins were away from the castle doing whatever they wanted. Keith felt justified leaving the castle, though. If anything was going to happen he would get an alert, but if it went along the path the past two weeks have been on, he wouldn’t be invited on the rescue mission. Voltron seemed to be doing fine without the red paladin assisting on rescue missions. A little time to himself on a nearby moon wouldn’t hurt. 

The lion purred around him as the piloting controls shifted closer to him. He cautiously gripped the controls, he has never piloted any lion except his own. Even the time he flew the black lion, the lion was piloting more than Keith. 

The controls are the same as Red’s, so he doesn’t have a problem leaving the castle. Though once he is out of the hangar, he notices the differences between the two lions. Blue is larger and doesn’t fly as fast. Keith, along with the rest of the team, knows this, but flying the larger lion felt odd. His movements were slower and more thought out. Keith didn’t want to risk running into something and damaging Blue because he wasn’t aware of the different dimensions. Landing wasn’t difficult for the sole reason that Blue did it herself. Maybe she sensed Keith wasn’t confident in his ability to land safely or maybe she is used to landing for Lance as well. Either way, Keith was thankful to not have to worry about crushing anything while landing. 

“Okay, now you can start whatever you were going to show me.” 

“Today we rescued a bunch of kids from a warzone. It was terrible, Blue. I mean, it was great they were saved, but it’s terrible they were in a warzone to begin with. A group of them were terribly injured and we couldn’t even put them in a healing pod! Coran said they weren’t meant for children and it could mess with their development or make their injuries. They all look so miserable and there wasn’t anything I could do to help!” 

Keith wishes he didn’t remember this mission so vividly. They were on a planet covered in trees with sparse clearings. Everyone was hiding in or behind trees fighting each other except for one group that was hiding in a cave. Hunk, Pidge, and Lance were the ones sent to check out the cave while Shiro and Keith fought against the Galra soldiers. 

Minutes after they were sent to search the cave, Hunk reported that it was a hideout for children, some of which were badly injured. The entire team’s focus was put onto loading the children into the lions and bringing them back to the castle. It was only after all the kids were safe on the castle that Shiro, Keith, and Pidge returned to the planet to fight while Hunk and Lance stayed to help with the children. 

“I couldn’t stand to see them hurt. They were all so calm- it made me feel guilty for being miserable on their behalf! I was in the medical bay with Coran, Allura, and Hunk for what felt like forever bandaging and comforting all of them. Well, I was more for comforting than bandaging. Like I said, it was hard for me to keep it together seeing everything that was going on. I think it was really obvious because when Shiro came in he told me to go calm myself down,” He said. 

“I must have looked like a mess. I kept running my hand through my hair, and I was all sweaty so it was all sticking up. I left the med bay and walked aimlessly around the castle. There was this hallway I’ve been meaning to explore, so I used it as a chance to distract myself. It didn’t work, but I did find a pretty neat library full of books I couldn’t read. Maybe one day I’ll have Pidge or Coran translate them all- I miss reading books about stuff other than fighting techniques.” 

Keith can honestly say he agrees. It’s been over a year since he’s read any book that resembled the ones he owned on Earth. Though he enjoys the reading material, it was boring and they all said the same thing. His bookshelf on Earth had every book ranging from conspiracies to sci-fi to mystery. If he knew he wouldn’t be going back to Earth for so long after leaving his shack, he would have brought a few of his favorite books to read while he was gone. 

“There was this huge chair in the corner that i sat in. Being surrounded by the books was comforting, but I still ended up a crying mess. Keith walked in shortly after I did, I think he was following me, but I nearly died from embarrassment. I don’t think I’m really an ugly crier, but it’s still embarrassing that he caught me,” Lance said.

“He sat down with his back facing me in front of the chair I was in. He told me that every time he sees me upset I go to Pidge so I can play with her hair. I knew I did this, but it was because I missed home and braiding Pidge’s hair reminded me of braiding my sisters’. Anyway, he also said that I could play with his hair instead because it was longer.” 

The memories of his hair being pulled in a million different directions still resides with Keith. If he didn’t see the end product, he would have thought Lance was just making a giant knot in his hair to mess with him. But instead of a giant knot, it was a simple braid that kept his hair out of his face for the rest of the day. There were so many times before training where Keith wanted to ask Lance to braid his hair back, but he never found the courage to do so. 

“What I’m going to say next sounds really ridiculous, but like you have to see where I’m coming from. So I’m sitting in the middle of this random library in a castle in space with the guy I’ve had a crush on for who knows how long. Then he tells me I can play with his hair because he knows I do that when I’m upset. Here’s the ridiculous part, brace yourself, Blue. I’ve been thinking about it for the past day, but I’m pretty sure I realized I actually loved him in that moment. I know, it sounds so dumb, but all the feelings I had for him multiplied instantly and I just- I think I love him, Blue, I really think I do.” 

The video ends there, leaving Keith in silence. 

“Ironically, Blue,” Keith said. “That was when I figured out I liked him more than a friend. It isn’t a love confession like him, but that was definitely when I started thinking of Lance in a different light.”


	6. Chapter 6

As much as Lance would like to say things started looking up for him after being in captivity for nearly two weeks, but that would be a lie and he’s never been one to tell lies. After the guards returned his armor, they started giving him more food, and he received two hours a day of training. The druids continued their questioning, but the punishment became less severe. Instead of the deep cuts, it was electricity. Each time it happened, Lance was reminded of the familiar _zap_ from Pidge’s bayard when he made a comment on her height, but instead of the playfulness from Pidge, he felt the malicious intent of the druids. 

With all the special treatment, it became very clear that something bad was going to happen. Though Lance was still being left in the dark as to _what_ would be happening, he knew it would be the next person going into the gladiator arena. The Galra aren’t known for treating their prisoners kindly, especially if said prisoner was a paladin of their biggest enemy. 

The idea of the arena terrified him to no end. Lance has seen the way it has affected Shiro: the nightmares, the flashbacks, the gap in his memory, and countless others. Lance isn’t as strong as Shiro- he wouldn’t be able to handle everything the way Shiro can. He can’t be sure that he’d survive the event or the side effects. 

He recalls the enemy Voltron fought when they first became paladins. Shiro said it was similar to something he’d fought while he was a prisoner. The team had trouble taking the enemy down as the universe’s biggest weapon, Lance can’t imagine having to do it on his own. 

An alert regarding Blue’s status flashed across his helmet’s visor. Blue was flying- or rather, someone was piloting Blue. The lions only fly on their own if their paladin is in danger, but it’s been nearly two weeks with nonstop danger. If Blue was able to rescue him, she would have by now. But this raises the question: who is piloting Blue? 

It could be Hunk. Out of all the paladins, Lance has known him the longest and the man is his best friend. Also, the yellow lion shares the most similarities with the blue lion. It would be easiest for Hunk to switch from piloting Yellow to piloting Blue. Someone would have to pilot Yellow, and Lance has no idea who could do it other than Hunk. 

The only other person Lance could imagine piloting Blue would be Allura. If the princess wasn’t so busy piloting the ship and opening wormholes, she would be perfect to pilot almost any of the lions- Blue especially. Her calm and determined nature would fit well with the lion. 

“It’s time for your training.” A guard opens the cell door and grabs Lance’s upper arm. 

“No need to be so handsy, man,” Lance joked. 

“Stay quiet.” The guard led Lance down the different hallways until he was presented with the training room. 

He lost his footing as he was roughly pushed into the room causing him to fall. He has been in the room a few other times and was well versed in what was about to happen. Instead of fighting bots, Lance was fighting different soldiers. Four would come at him in each direction and he had to fight all of them off before the next four ran towards him. If he failed to fight off the first four, he was not only attacked by them, but he would then have to fight off eight instead of the original four. 

The training sequence would explain how the soldiers are so strong. Fighting four people at once wasn’t easy, even less so for Lance who wasn’t supplied a weapon. Most of his fighting techniques were to evade all attacks, wait for another paladin to step in, and then use his bayard to shoot the enemy. Now the enemy was multiplied and Lance had no weapon. He continued to evade the attacks in hopes of tiring the soldiers enough for his hits to be effective. 

If the other paladins were there to fight with him, the fight would have ended already. Instead of being surrounded by eight Galra soldiers, Lance would be joining his friends in whatever activity they were doing at the moment. 

“Stop!” The guard’s voice echos through the training room. All of the soldiers back away from Lance, leaving him in the middle of the floor looking more vulnerable than he did entering the room. 

“There’s someone who wishes to speak with the blue paladin. Training will resume afterwards.” 

The soldiers left the room at the same time his visitor walked in. Lance kept his vision focused on the floor while he tried to calm his breathing from the fight.

“I’m not supposed to tell this, but you will be given your weapon when you are set to fight.” The voice was human and Lance immediately recognized it from the countless mind melds between all the paladins. 

“Matt!” He looked up. 

Part of Lance’s mind expected Matt to look the same as he did in Pidge’s memories or even from the rare memory Shiro had from the Kerberos mission. In the memories he looked nearly identical to Pidge, the only big differences being height and hair. Now that Lance can see him face to face, the differences were more pronounced. Matt’s chin was wider that Pidge’s, his hair was longer (though that could be because he doesn’t have anything to cut it with), and he was missing the glasses Pidge wore everyday. 

“You know me? I had to fight with the guards to talk to you because I heard there was another human. How do you know me?” 

“Are you kidding me?” Lance laughed. “I was at the Garrison when you took off for Kerberos with Shiro and your dad, I was roommates with Pidge while she was trying to find you, and when we got to space, Pidge never stopped talking about you. At this point, you could be _my_ brother with how much I know about you.” 

“You know Pidge?” Matt asked. 

“Have you not heard about Voltron?” 

“No, no, I have. I just- what does that have to do with Pidge?” 

“She is the green paladin. Kinda like how I’m the blue paladin? She has the green lion and is the left- no right- no, definitely the left arm of Voltron,” He said. 

“She can’t be! That’s too dangerous! She should be back home on Earth with Mom, not defending the universe.” 

“Dude, calm down! Pidge can handle herself. Trust me, she kicks some serious alien ass. But the guard that interrupted training looks like he is getting impatient, so you need to tell me what you wanted to tell me.” 

“Right,” Matt shakes his head as if to rid his thoughts of Pidge. “Tomorrow you’re fighting, but you will have your bayard. No matter what happens, don’t stop fighting until you are pulled out of the arena. Most of the people here are scared of humans based on Shiro’s performance, so if you can do half the damage he did, you should be fine.” 

“Is that it?” 

“The audience is going to be expecting a big fight. You could do terribly and they are just going to keep putting you against all kinds of monsters until you are on the brink of death. And then they’ll send you to the druids and when they’re done with you, you’ll be back to fighting. This is basically the Galra’s only form of entertainment, they are going to want it to be interesting.” 

“I’m going to die tomorrow, aren’t I?” 

“No, but you’re going to wish that was the case,” Matt said. The guard walks up behind Matt and starts to pull him away. He doesn’t fight back and Lance assumes it’s because that hasn’t ended well for him in the past. 

As Matt is dragged away, Lance can’t help but see how he has given up. Two years of being in captivity with the Galra and Matt no longer fights back- he would rather be pushed around and blend in with the other prisoners. It’s goes against everything he knows about Matt, but maybe blending in is for the best considering it’s kept him alive. 

“Continue training.” The guard calls and the four soldiers run towards Lance.

* * *

Lance was a firm believer in the butterfly effect. Once he started school he noticed more and more the effects of his actions and decisions. However, now that he is sitting in a space prison, he couldn’t really pinpoint which decision led him here. Was it when he snuck out of the dorms with Pidge and Hunk? Was it when he was racing Keith to help Shiro? Perhaps it was accepting his position as the blue paladin. But regardless of what led him to this point in his life, there was nothing he could do to get out of it. 

Tomorrow he was going to have to fight for his life, and regardless of the injuries he suffers, he is going to have to fight until he or the enemy dies. There was nothing he could do.


	7. Chapter 7

Sleep never came to Lance. He sat in his cell listening to the different footsteps walking through the halls. The dark purple wall in front of him was all he had to look at while he mulled about the fight he was to endure. 

Maybe it was the Galra’s plan to freak him out the day before by having Matt tell him. Now he was at even more of a disadvantage because of the lack of sleep. If they wanted an interesting fight, making a paladin out to be weak would be the easiest thing to do. The universe has seen what Voltron can do, but they’ve also witness what the paladins are capable of on their own. Lance would imagine in a Galra point of view seeing one of their greatest enemy fail in battle would be thrilling. 

Two soldiers came to his cell. The door was opened and no words were said as they each grabbed one of Lance’s arms to lead him towards the transport ship. The night before he could hear the different guards on patrol talking about how they’d have to transport Lance to the main ship where Zarkon and the arena were located. 

As he was pulled down the hallway, more and more soldiers lined up around him. Maybe they thought he would try to escape their grasp and then the ship, but Lance knew he wouldn’t be able to do that without a weapon. They still had his bayard and hand-to-hand combat has never one of his strengths. As far as Lance was concerned, he was trapped and there was nothing he could do about it. 

The transport ship was small; it held a handful of soldiers, Lance, and Matt. Lance’s leg bounced with nerves. It was obviously annoying the people around him, but no one tried stopping him. 

He tried to prepare himself for his upcoming fight. There was no way he could step foot on the ship looking as scared as he feels. The Galra already see him as weak, seeing him in fear would only make it worse. 

His mother always told him to act confident- fake it until you make it. Lance despised the saying growing up. He didn’t understand how faking something could lead to actually being able to do it. Now he understand that the repeated action becomes second nature and he’d no longer find himself consciously acting confident, he was just confident naturally. He can’t imagine his mother telling him to act confident when faced with the closest to death he will ever be, but she would also tell him desperate times call for desperate measures and Lance would consider this a desperate time. 

He straightened his posture, stopped bouncing his leg, and stared straight ahead with a blank face. Surviving this fight would be the easy part Matt said they wouldn’t let him die. The hard part would be enduring whatever the druids would do to keep him alive. The magic used while torturing him for information was the worst pain he has ever felt, he can’t imagine the magic to keep him alive would be any less painful. 

“Are you ready?”

“Mhm,” He hummed. 

The same two guards that pulled him onto the transport ship also pushed him out of it. Lance was careful not to lose his balance and trip in front of the crowd that lined the hallway leading to the arena. All that could be heard was a mix of cheering for Lance’s capture and insults directed towards the paladin. There were people trying to reach out to him, but he didn’t react in the slightest. They didn’t need to know how truly terrified he was 

“Here’s your bayard,” Matt said, handing him the weapon that activated as he touched it. They were at the entrance to the arena. In a matter of seconds he was going to be fighting a monster without anything but his armor and bayard. Though he knew how to use those to his advantage, he felt useless in battle without his lion. 

“Thanks.” 

The doors opened in front of Lance and he walked through to the pit of the arena. An announcer was introducing Lance as the blue paladin of Voltron. The crowd shouted in distaste as his presence. He kept his blank face up as he looked around the arena. There were too many rows to determine how many Galra were going to watch him suffer.

The audience’s attitude turned as Lance’s competitor was announced. They cheered for the alien as it walked closer to Lance. It was a shock to see the alien wasn’t the large monsters Shiro fought, but instead it was short and wide. It looked similar to the people on taujeer, but this alien had a faint glow surrounding its body. 

Winning the battle with minimal injuries looks to be an actual possibility. 

There is a short countdown before the battle actually starts. The alien’s glow becomes more intense and as the countdown ends, the alien changes its appearance to look like Shiro. It runs towards Lance with Shiro’s glara arm glowing purple. He easily blocks it, but finds himself unable to return the attack. 

He can’t fight Shiro, and the alien knows this. It must be the reason the alien has been successful in the gladiator fights. It takes on the form of people close to its enemy to distract them from fighting. 

“Are you too scared to fight your leader?” It said in Shiro’s voice. “What about this?” 

The glow is blindingly bright as they morph from Shiro to Hunk. 

“This better?” The alien is forced to use hand-to-hand combat while in Hunk’s body due to lack of weapon. 

“Much better,” Lance replies as he dodges each punch easily, being used to his best friend’s fighting technique. 

“You’re still not fighting back? Let me try something else.” 

The glow comes back and Lance takes the opportunity to shoot at the glow, hoping it hits the alien. The idea seems to be successful as the glow dims. Changing between states seems to be the weakest point for the alien, but Lance can’t guarantee they’ll keep changing. It doesn’t matter who they turn into next, Lance has to fight them. 

“How does fighting the red paladin sound?” 

“Of course it would be him,” Lance mumbled. 

Keith stands in front of him, smirking as Lance freezes. Maybe he couldn’t fight Keith like he thought. 

“It’s not Keith, it’s the alien.” He reminds himself. “It isn’t Keith.” 

Dodging punches becomes increasingly more difficult. On the castle, Lance had trouble fighting Keith during training. Not only was he worse than Keith at fighting, he would get distracted. There are only a few training matches between the few that ended with a victory for Lance. 

The alien pulls the Marmoran knife from wherever Keith keeps it on his person. Lance runs away from the alien, knowing he can’t win against Keith and his knife skills. His legs were longer than Keith’s, but that didn’t seem to matter as the alien was directly behind him. 

The alien jumped forward, causing the knife to scrape down Lance’s leg armor before piercing the back of his left knee. He cried out in pain as he fell forward and the knife went deeper into his skin. He didn’t dare move from where he was in fear of making the injury worse. There was a small pool of blood by his leg that only grew as the alien ripped the knife from the back of his knee. 

Lance braced himself for the knife to pierce his skin again, but it never came. Turning his head, being careful not to move his legs, he could see soldiers running towards them. Two were already holding the alien, who was back in their normal form, and four were running towards Lance. Without warning, two lifted him up. The injury to his knee worsened as the soldiers moved him out of the arena. 

Once out of the same exit he entered from, one of the soldiers not carrying him took his bayard away while the other called orders. Lance’s vision had black splotches in it as he struggled to stay awake. His breathing was labored and everything felt like it was moving in slow motion. He couldn’t tell what was going on as he was moved through the ship. 

Some Galra there to watch the fight were in the hallway yelling things at him as he passed by. The sudden movements and incoherent yelling terrified Lance and not being able to do anything about it made it that much worse. 

The only thing that stood out among the chaos was the guard holding his upper body. He had been arguing silently with the soldier on his left, but his final statement was loud enough and clear enough for Lance to freeze up. 

_“Take him to Haggar.”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As always you an message me on [tumblr](http://aexis1465.tumblr.com/) if you want to talk about this story other stories or anything else


	8. Chapter 8

Joining the team for training wasn’t as awkward as Keith anticipated. After two weeks of avoiding the team and being excluded from the missions, he thought the team would be reluctant to let him go on the rescue mission for Lance with all the training he’s skipped. 

“Keith, come here!” Shiro called over Hunk and Pidge who were fighting bots. 

He walked around them to Shiro who stood just outside the door in the hallway. 

“What lion are you going to fly when we go to rescue Lance? We know you can fly Blue now, but since that happened, you haven’t flown with Red.” 

“I don’t know,” Keith said truthfully. 

Since bonding with the blue lion, Keith has barely spoken to Red. Guilt plagues his mind as he realizes he’s been ignoring his lion. All the trouble he went through bonding with Red and he pushed it all aside to bond with Blue. 

“I’m gonna- I’m going to go talk to Red.” Keith stuttered before walking away from the training room and towards the hangar. 

Blue’s presence piqued in his mind, but he paid no mind to her. He needed to talk to his lion, if she would allow him, that was. 

“Red?” He stood in front of his lion. “Red, come one. Open up, please?” 

He stood silently in front of the unmoving lion. There were no sign of her acknowledging him as she stared straight ahead. 

“Red, I’m sorry. Let me in, we can talk.” 

Another moment of nothing occurred before Red swiftly ducked her head down to allow Keith to climb in. Once in the lion, he relaxes in the pilot seat. A sense of peace runs through his body as he sits in the red glow of his lion. The feeling was entirely different than when he is sitting in Blue. In Red, everything is warm and precise. It’s all about the mission and pushing the limits. In Blue, it’s more relaxed, listening to orders but remaining calm. Though they are different atmospheres, they both bring comfort.

“I’m sorry for ignoring you,” Keith said. “Between Lance being taken and Blue bonding with me and finding Lances coordinates, I’ve been occupied. I feel terrible averting all my attention to Lance, but he needs it. He’s in trouble and it’s my fault. If didn’t fly towards the ship’s tracker, he wouldn’t have pushed us out of the way, and he wouldn’t be captured by the Galra.” 

“I was spending so much time with Blue because she would show me these videos Lance made where he would just talk. It’s amazing to see him when he is comfortable just talking about anything and everything that’s on his mind. He talks about his family, the team, me, his future, and all sorts of other things. When he gets back, I want him to be able to confide in me the way he does Blue. I want to hear everything everything he has to say about every topic.”

Talking to his lion felt normal. Telling her everything he thinks takes a huge weight off his chest, allowing him to breath again. Everything he refused to tell the team, he could easily tell Red. She was listening to him, not judging. 

“Is it weird that I can see myself having a future with him? He mentioned him and I being together during one of his videos, and on his list of things about me, one of them was about him and I having kids. I don’t think I’d be that great with kids, personally, but Lance seems to think him and I would do an okay job. He wants a big family like how he grew up, but I can’t imagine that. I think two, maybe three, kids would be enough. And we’d have to live back on Earth, as much as I love space, I wouldn’t want my kids to grow up without any human interaction other than the seven of us on the castle. Like we can visit space and they can have alien friends, but we’d live on Earth. They would never go near the Garrison either- just saying.” 

Keith laughs softly. “I’m literally talking about our kids and he doesn’t even know I like him. I wasn’t even here to talk about him! I was here to apologize to you! I mean, now you see what I meant about getting distracted with Lance, but still. Anyway, we are going on a rescue mission for him when Pidge finds his coordinates. Shiro told me I had to choose between you and Blue for the mission because I can pilot both of you. I would like to go on the mission with you, but only if you’re okay with it. I know I haven’t been the best paladin, talking to Blue and all, but I’m more confident flying with you.” 

The lion purred around Keith, letting him know she was okay to go with him. 

“Thank you, Red. I really appreciate it.”

* * *

“Guys! I got the coordinates!” Pidge yells as she runs towards the dining hall with her laptop in hand. 

She sets the computer in the middle of the table so everyone, except for Hunk who has to walk to the other side of the table, can see. Keith doesn’t understand the graph on the screen, but he does understand the red dot being moved around. 

“He has been on that ship for a few hours now and it doesn’t seem like they are going to move him from the ship. However, that is one of the Galra’s main ships, so getting in and out is going to be difficult.” 

“Anything else?” Shiro asks. 

“Yeah, I found this radio broadcast coming from the ship.” She hits the enter key and a transcript of the broadcast shows up on the screen.

 _The Blue Paladin of Voltron was sent to fight the gladiator earlier this week. Since then, he has fought three times, yet there has not been an announcement naming a winner. There hasn’t been any word regarding injuries for the paladin, but attendees of the fights said he had to be carried off the field before each fight ended._

The group stared silently at the three sentences confirming Lance was in more danger than they thought. 

“Our original plan isn’t going to work,” Shiro said. 

“So what do we do?” Hunk asked. 

“I have an idea, but I don’t know if you guys will be up for it,” Allura said. 

“What is it?” 

Allura started to explain her plan, stopping often to remind them that they didn’t have to do it if anyone felt uncomfortable. The plan meant waiting for Lance to go into his next fight, but also sending Shiro to the Galra. He was the champion to them, and putting him back into the arena was something they’ve been looking to do since he escaped. Him fighting against Lance would make it that much better for the Galra. 

While Shiro explained to Lance they didn’t actually have to fight but pretend, Allura would disguise herself as one of the Galra soldiers that guard Lance’s entrance and exit into the arena. When Lance was taken off the field, she would direct the soldiers towards the outer edges of the ship where Keith would be waiting to help Lance off the ship. 

Shiro would run out from the arena with Hunk and Pidge giving him cover fire as he runs toward where Allura and the Black lion would be cloaked outside the ship. Shiro would fly the lion to where the red lion was cloaked to hide Lance and Keith as they boarded the lion. Once the two were safely in the lion, both lions would fly back to the castle where Coran would have everything set up for Allura to create a wormhole for their quick escape. 

“And from there, we can put Lance in a healing pod if need be,” Coran added. 

“I understand how this mission might be difficult for some of you, and I am completely okay with thinking of another plan if you choose not to use this one,” Allura said. 

“Is there anyone that doesn’t want to use this plan?” Shiro asks and waits a few seconds for any answer. 

“No one? Okay, then I guess we are going with it. We’ll leave tomorrow.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> in the next chapter they finally rescue Lance so that's something to look forward to lmao


	9. Chapter 9

“When will be able to communicate with Lance with our helmet radios?” Keith asked from his lion. 

“When we get on the ship,” Allura said. 

“It isn’t a good idea for everyone to talk to him at once,” Shiro said. “I’ll talk to him once I’m in the arena. If things go badly, I’ll have someone else talk to him. Sound good?” 

Everyone agreed just as the two lions took their place. Keith stayed in his lion while the others piled out of Black. Hunk and Pidge were dressed up as different alien species to fit in with the crowd. Allura made herself appear as Galra as she grabbed ahold of Shiro to present him to the other guards. 

Part of Keith wishes he was with the team. They were all able to assess the danger they could be in at any moment, whereas Keith stayed in his lion waiting for Lance to show up. He felt like more of a getaway driver, but, for the most part, he was comfortable with his position.

“I found the black paladin wandering around the ship,” Allura said to one of the other guards on the ship. “I think he was trying to rescue the blue paladin before I found him.” 

“I’ll take him from here. I think Zarkon would be delighted to see this one back in the fight.” 

“I took my place among the guards,” She whispered. “I have yet to see Lance.” 

“He must not have his helmet on, he hasn’t said anything,” Keith said. 

“Lance just showed up, there’s another human giving him his helmet and bayard. He looks like Pidge.” 

“Matt! It has to be Matt! When you leave with Lance, I’m going to get him. Hunk? Will you be good giving Shiro back up on your own?”

“I don’t have much of a choice,” Hunk sighed. 

“Stop talking! He is putting his helmet on!” Allura said.

The line goes silent, leaving Keith to imagine what is happening to the others.

* * *

“How are you holding up?” Matt asks as he hands Lance his things. 

“I could be dead, but I think I’d prefer that at this point,” Lance offers a weak laugh. 

Matt remained silent as he gave Lance an apologetic look. 

There wasn’t much time for the conversation to continue as Lance was thrown into the arena for the fifth time in five days. The screams from the crowd no longer bothered him, it became easier to ignore with each minute he spent in the arena. He flexed the hand given to him from Haggar after his last fight. In an attempt to dodge a knife to his face, Lance put his hand up causing the knife to go through to the armor on the backside of his hand. Much like his knee injury from his first fight, the knife tore through too many muscles and tendons for Haggar’s magic to fix as fast as she’d like. 

She had his right leg amputated mid-thigh and his left hand amputated at the wrist then replaced both with limbs much like Shiro’s arm. Haggar had argued with someone Lance couldn’t see for hours before it was decided to give him old technology. Haggar wanted to use him to test out new inventions, but whoever she argued with insisted it wasn’t smart to give updated weapons to the enemy. 

The night after his first fight he cried for hours. The pain of injuries that were no longer there kept him awake nearly the entire night. He could feel the knife against his knee that was no longer there. Then came the pain of Haggar using magic to amputate his leg as multiple soldiers kept him still. Lance has yet to figure out what his new leg can do. So far it has just cause pain and been an inconvenience as he tries to run away from the enemy while fighting.

After Haggar severed his hand, his mind went numb. There was no crying or phantom pain. The entire night was spent staring at the wall. 

There was an announcement that Lance couldn’t hear, but the audience went near silent once it was over. All the attention that was originally on Lance was diverted to the other side of the arena where the doors were opening for Lance’s next opponent. 

Since the third fight when Lance managed to beat the shape-shifting alien by shooting while he was shifting, he was pitted against an alien that possessed the same strength Lance had. Lance had the upperhand through most of the fight, but just as he was going to win, the alien threw something at him causing him to fall backwards. There was an orange goo across his chest and right arm that kept him pinned to the floor. The kicked his legs to keep the alien away as he used his free arm to try and pick away at the goo. The alien managed to get close enough to take a stab at his face to which put his hand up as a shield. 

Through the doors came to be someone that looked exactly like Shiro. They were looking around the arena, petrified at the crowd that cheered louder than Lance has ever heard them. Though the enemy looked like Shiro, Lance was weary to trust them. His first three fights were against an alien that took shape of his friends to trick him- who’s to say this isn’t the same concept? 

As they continued to stare at the crowd in fear, Lance used the opportunity to run at them. If he could get a hit in before they started fighting back, he would have a much better of fighting against someone with Shiro’s build and skill. Maybe he could extend the state of shock and panic they are in and win the fight without being injured. 

Unlike before when he was cautious about fighting the alien that looked like his friends, Lance was willing to fight whoever he needed to. Not fighting back meant being injured and sent to Haggar. If Lance could avoid ever seeing Haggar again, he would harm whoever he needed to while in the arena. 

He tackled “Shiro” to the ground and was quick to stand so he could pin them down with his Galra leg. 

“Lance,” The alien gasped, their attention finally away from the crowd. “What did they do to you?” 

Lance’s stance faltered as he could hear the alien perfectly through his helmet’s radio. His helmet went with the Garla after every fight along with his bayard, the probability of them tampering with it was very likely but he hasn’t seen any signs of that being true. Still it was possible that hearing Shiro’s voice was a trick to get him to lose. 

He stamped his foot down onto their chest plate, keeping them on the ground. They showed no want to fight back as they lied still on the ground. Their eyes looked between Lance’s Galra leg to his face and to his Galra hand. 

“Are you okay?” 

“Stop!” Lance said. 

“Lance, please, it’s me. I promise, I wouldn’t lie to you!” 

Lance backed up from “Shiro” to give them room to stand up. He grabbed his bayard from it’s place on his armor and pointed it at them. There was no way this was Shiro. If he was in the arena by force he’d be fighting. Why isn’t he fight? 

They took a step towards Lance and he shot his bayard slightly to side of them. 

“It’s not just me!” They exclaimed. “The rest of the team is here too! We are trying to get you out of here. Allura is right over there.” 

They point behind Lance, but he doesn’t dare turn around. That would put his back to the enemy and that was exactly what happened when his knee was stabbed. 

“I don’t believe you,” He said firmly. 

If the team was going to rescue him, they wouldn’t do it like this. They wouldn’t hand Shiro over to the Galra. Sacrificing the leader of Voltron would be the last resort, assuming they were desperate enough to resort to that at all. This would be their first rescue attempt Lance knows of, but everything seems too risky for the team for this to be them. 

“It’s us, man,” Hunk’s voice filtered through his helmet. “We are here to bring you home.” 

Lance ripped his helmet off of his head and threw it away from him. The voices coming through his helmet were distracting him from the fight. Any second now “Shiro” would lunge at him and try to kill him. He wasn’t going to let this kill him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry about not posting a chapter last week, I'm having trouble writing one of the future chapters and I wanted to finish that before I posted this (ironically still haven't made any progress on it, but I'm going to try to get it done) 
> 
> and thank you for all the comments, I haven't replied to all of them because I'm terrible at that, but I appreciate all of them ! <333


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The team is finally in the same vicinity as Lance, but Lance isn't as willing to go as they had planned. 
> 
> _“I don’t believe you.”_
> 
> _Lance didn’t believe them. The statement alone broke Keith’s heart. How were they going to rescue Lance if he didn’t believe Shiro? More importantly, what happened that Lance won’t trust the team? What did the Galra do to him?_

“Lance,” Shiro gasped. “What did they do to you?” 

Keith bit his lip to refrain from saying anything. He wanted to know what was different about Lance. Judging by Shiro’s tone, it wasn’t good. Suddenly being the only paladin not witnessing the fight made him uneasy. 

“Are you okay?” 

“Stop!” Lance yelled. 

The change in Lance’s voice stood out to Keith. It was scratchy as if he has been screaming for hours. The thought of what could have caused Lance to scream for that long sent chills down his spine. 

“Lance, please, it’s me. I promise, I wouldn’t lie to you!” 

A gunshot and gasp from Shiro could be heard through his helmet. Keith was hoping that Shiro wasn’t just shot by Lance. He wasn’t trusting what Shiro had to say, but would Lance go to the extent of shooting him? 

“It’s not just me!” He said. “The rest of the team is here too! We are trying to get you out of here. Allura is right over there.” 

“I don’t believe you.” 

Lance didn’t believe them. The statement alone broke Keith’s heart. How were they going to rescue Lance if he didn’t believe Shiro? More importantly, what happened that Lance won’t trust the team? What did the Galra do to him?

Keith wanted to speak up. He wanted to tell Lance that they were there to save him and everything would be okay. They would go back to the castle and slowly things would go back to how they were before he was captured. There were too many things Keith wanted to tell Lance, but first they’d have to get him off the Galra ship.

“It’s us, man,” Hunk said. “We are here to bring you home.” 

“He threw his helmet off!” Shiro said moments later. 

“I would just like to point out, that was not my intention when I tried talking to him.” 

“What do we do now?” Pidge asked. 

“Shiro, you’re either going to have to injure him so we can take him to the lion or convince him,” Allura spoke calmly through the helmets. 

Shiro sighed and Keith already knew what option he was choosing. Though he didn’t want Lance to go through anymore pain while on the Galra ship, but if hurting him was the best chance of getting him out of there, Keith was willing to let it go. 

“What do we do once he’s injured though?” Pidge asked. “They will drag Shiro away as soon as the fight’s over.” 

“What if you just grab him and run?” Keith said. 

“I have an idea,” Shiro said. “Pidge, be ready to grab Matt. Lance and I’ll be ready to leave in a moment.” 

Through his helmet Keith can hear Shiro’s breathing as he runs, Pidge is excusing herself from the crowd with Hunk to get closer to where her brother is, and Allura remains quiet. Keith slowly gets out of his lion, looking in every direction periodically to make sure no guards could see him. He ventured out from the long hallway he was in to get closer to where Allura would be emerging from the arena with Lance. She would need cover while running towards Red with Lance. 

Keith can hear the audience roar from where he stands. Seconds later, the team and Matt were emerging from the arena. A group of guards followed each group as the split off from each other. Allura was carrying Lance whose helmet was back on and the visor was dark. Like the exercise they did when they were first bonding with the lions, Lance wouldn’t be able to see anything. 

Allura ran in front of Keith who was fighting as best he could with his bayard. A sword was proving to be useless as bullets were still being fired at them no matter how far away from the Gala they were. 

“Lance, give me your bayard,” Keith said hastily. If he was correct, bonding with Blue would also mean he could use the blue paladin’s bayard. The gun would be much more convenient that his sword. 

“No!” Lance shouted. 

“I understand it’s your only weapon, but I could really use a gun instead of a sword right now!”   
“Even if you are who you say you are, it won’t work for you anyway.” 

“I’m sorry.” Keith said as he took the bayard from Lance’s armor.   
Fortunately the bayard formed Lance’s gun, giving Keith a better chance of protecting Allura and Lance. He fired back at the Galra forces until they were back in the red lion. Keith wasted no time sitting himself back in the pilot’s seat to fly Red away from the Galra ship and towards the castle. 

“Is he okay?” He asked Allura. 

“There’s been a few _modifications,_ ” She said slowly. “His hand and leg are visibly different, I can’t tell if there is anything else.” 

“Different how?” 

“Stop talking about me as if I’m not right here!” 

Red purred around them, and Keith wondered if she would bond with Lance the way Blue did with him. The chance of not being bonded to Blue anymore because of Lance’s rescue weighs heavily in his mind. Of course he understood she was Lance’s lion, but bonding with Blue was enjoyable. It gave Keith a different perspective at times and offered a different sense of comfort that Red didn’t necessarily have. 

“How far are you from the castle?” Keith asks Shiro as he lands Red in the hangar. He hasn’t heard from the rest of the team since leaving the Galra ship, and to be frank, he was worried.Shiro was the Galra’s champion, they wouldn’t want to give him up after getting him back. 

“We aren’t that far,” Hunk answered. “Pidge took her helmet off to talk with Matt and Shiro has been eerily silent. But yeah, we’ll be there in a minute.” 

“I’m going to take Lance to the med-bay,” Keith said upon exiting the lion with Lance leaning against his side. 

“I’ll prepare for the wormhole jump.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Honestly, I wish I had a better excuse for not updating in so long other than I've had so many other things going on. I recently went through and read some comments that have been left on this story since I stopped updating and I was like "ya know, I like writing and I haven't done it in a while." And then I opened google docs, found I still had a chapter that wasn't updated (This one) and then another one started. So I will try my absolute hardest to keep this fic going (summer starts in two weeks so it'll be a lot easier ((hopefully)) ) and thank you so, so much to everyone who has left comments and all that jazz <333
> 
> Feel free to message me about literally anything on Tumblr @aexis1465 (I didn't put the link because I need to go through and find the html for it but next time I'll link it)


	11. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance reconnects with Blue and comes to terms with his new look.

There was no talking between the pair as they walked towards the med-bay. The only noises were the castle and the tapping of Lance’s foot hitting the castle’s metal floor. It was a painful reminder that none of this would have happened had he listened to Lance in the place. It was his fault Lance lost his hand and leg, and he’d never forgive himself for it.

“Lance,” Keith said softly after taking his helmet off. 

They were in the medbay and Lance was uncomfortably shifting his weight side to side while he avoided eye contact with Keith. He looked at the table he was told to sit on, but refused. It was still very clear he didn’t believe his rescue was genuine. Keith frowned as he reached forward to hold Lance’s hands, but both were pulled away from him as Lance took a step away from him. 

“Lance?” He repeated. “Look at me, please.” 

Lance kept his head down to avoid Keith’s looks of concern. There’s a flare of frustration in Keith’s mind, he wanted to help but there wasn’t anything he could do as long as Lance was still avoiding him and the team. 

“If I talk, are you at least going to listen?” 

Again, he was given no sign that Lance was interested in what he had to say. There was so much he wanted to tell Lance, but it would be impossible to do that until he was willing to listen. Possibly the worst part about it was that Keith couldn’t find it in himself to blame Lance. There were too many instances since they met that gave Lance enough reason to want nothing to do with him. If Lance wasn’t willing to listen, Keith would just have to wait until he was.

* * *

“I guess I’ll talk to you later,” Keith said before leaving the medbay. 

Lance took a second to look around the room. While walking to it, the castle seemed to be physically the same as it was before the fateful mission resulting in his capture. However, the atmosphere was more tense. The entire team was more serious and neither Keith nor Allura appeared to be happy upon his return. He has yet to see reactions from the others, but he hopes it differs from what he has received thus far. 

He wanders out of the medbay shortly after entering it. Coran was meant to set up a pod for him, but Lance couldn’t feel any pain so the multitude of scans can wait until he talks to Blue. Blue’s presence was the only sign that reassured him he was actually safe. Her welcoming and joyful aura provided the comfort Lance has yearned for since he stepped back into the castle. Throughout his captivity, he couldn’t communicate with her for reasons he didn’t know. He assumed the Galra were taking her apart, so knowing Blue was in one piece in her hangar was more of a relief than being rescued. 

Once in the hangar, Blue’s eyes lit yellow and she leant down so he could enter the cockpit. She purred around him as he sat down. His mind felt much more relaxed as the control panels appeared around him. The panels had sidebars of all the video entries he’s left, though they weren’t in the order he would have left them in. He wanted to ask Blue, but she continued purring with a slight him that filled his mind. 

The familiar environment was much more welcoming than the prison cell he had become accustomed to. When he wasn’t being thrown back and forth between druids and the arena, he was locked in a solitary confinement of sorts. The cell was nicer than the ones other prisoners were kept in, but that didn’t make it any more desirable. The price of a nicer cell was his right leg and left hand. Quite frankly, Lance would have preferred the worse cell. 

Blue moves the panels around until the screen he records with is in front of him. She radiates encouragement, wanting him to create another entry for the first time since his absence. 

“Blue, I really don’t want to. Maybe later,” He said. 

Her encouragement doesn’t completely fade away, but she lightens up on the feeling. Out of everyone in the castle, Blue is the only one who seems to respective his want for privacy. Lance is thankful for the break of people talking to or about him. Despite longing for the presence of his team and lion, Lance would prefer to be alone. He needed time to rest and think. With his focus solely on surviving, Lance hasn’t had the time he needs to process what has been happening in the last weeks. 

Once again the video screen and sense of encouragement come back. The entries have been a way for Lance to vent and talk when he had no one else to talk to. In a sense, it was a way to talk to himself without seeming entirely insane. 

“I said not now, Blue. I’m-” Before he can finishes his thought, the screen is recording and Lance sees himself for the first time since he left. 

His look is entirely different than what he anticipated. With the exception of his hand and leg, his body looks the same as it always has. He was skinnier than he remembered, but not drastically like he was expecting. He knows that under the undersuit of his armor there were no more scars, Haggar made sure to rid any scars and heal all wounds after each of his battles. He was the Galra’s trophy and he needed to look as such. That meant the removal of all blemishes across his body. The scar of when he fell off his bike while teaching his little brother no longer stretched down his arm, the scar of a training session with Pidge gone wrong on his back was no longer there, and the absence of his shark-shaped birthmark. All were missing because the Galra deemed them blemishes instead of memories and reminders. 

However, it was the look in his eyes that was most different. They were no longer the bright blue he prides himself on. His entire family had brown eyes, it was only Lance and his grandmother that had bright blue eyes that resembled the light blue sky against the darker blue ocean. Instead of the blue he loved, they were grey and lifeless. He’s seen the lifeless look in the eyes of soldiers and prisoners and civilians of all different races on all different planets. He didn’t like it. He could ignore the oily hair and dry skin, but he was unable to look away from his eyes. 

“That’s not me,” He said, knowing fully well it was. “It can’t be.” 

His breath picks up and his surroundings start to spin. His chest feels heavy and his limbs are left numb, but the spots where his skin connect to his prosthetics are on fire. He scratches at his wrist and cries as he fails, once again, to detach the Galra tech from his body. The walls close in on him and there is no exit. He sits in his chair, looking at his now bleeding wrist in tears. 

“I need to leave,” He mumbles to himself repeatedly. 

The walls around him shake causing him to panic more, but after a few seconds the shaking stops and Blue’s mouth is open for him to walk out. He stands, but immediately falls next to the pilot chair. His human leg is shaking and his Galra leg isn’t much use to him. He remains on the floor, crying as he can’t find the strength to stand.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My tumblr can be found [here](aexis1465.tumblr.com) and I love to get messages and talk about all sorts of stuff so please feel free to just show up in my inbox or messages with any topic that suits your fancy 
> 
> As always, thanks for reading lovelies <333

**Author's Note:**

> so does anyone want to read Lance's fight or should I write more stuff about Keith?
> 
> tumblr: [@aexis1465](http://aexis1465.tumblr.com/)


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